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Impact Report April 2024 - March 2025

Young Somerset is the largest youth work charity in Somerset, delivering mental health support, targeted youth work, alternative education and early years services across the county. In 2024/25 it received 2,807 referrals for direct work, while its NHS-partnered Mental Health Support Team expanded to 34% of Somerset schools and dramatically cut assessment waiting times.

Report snapshot
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About

Targeted youth support and mental health services (Mental Health Support Team, Community Wellbeing Service, Jigsaw clinical youth work, Umbrella respite service); early years and parenting support; alternative education (motor mechanics, digital skills, outdoor learning); Bold & Brave social enterprise shop/café and supported internships; Young Rangers conservation programme

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 2,807 referrals received for direct work across the whole organisation in 2024/25
Key Metric 2 7,402 individual contacts with children and young people through the Mental Health Support Team (MHST)
Key Metric 3 MHST referral-to-assessment waiting times reduced from 217 days (July 2024) to 49 days (March 2025)

Key Outcomes

  • 93% of children and young people gave positive feedback on their Mental Health Support Team experience
  • 91% of Community Wellbeing Service referral-to-assessment cases now seen within 4 weeks, up from previous longer waits
  • Jigsaw clinical mentoring reduced CAMHS Liaison hospital admissions by 50% among the 60 young people supported

Geography

South West

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
440,000+ young people aged 4-18 active members across 7,000 Groups
Key Metric 2
140,000 volunteers supporting the movement across the UK
Key Metric 3
373 Sections opened or re-energised in England between April 2024 and March 2025
0.3% overall growth in young people (ages 4-18), driven by 31% increase in Squirrel Scouts (5,200 young people)
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
55,000 foster carers and 370 fostering service providers as members across the UK
Key Metric 2
45 new Fostering Friendly Employers recruited, bringing the scheme to over 680,000 employees across the UK
Key Metric 3
95 Fostering Wellbeing Pioneers in Wales offering peer support and mentoring to fellow foster carers
191 children and young people engaged in outdoor adventure weeks through the Fostering Attainment and Achievement programme in Northern Ireland
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
91,000 young people supported across 24 countries in 2024/25, including 67,368 in the UK
Key Metric 2
Over 70% of the 25,500 young people who completed Employment and Enterprise programmes achieved a positive outcome
Key Metric 3
Education programmes engaged 63,000 young people (69% of the total), the largest share of delivery
In the UK, 71% of Employment and Enterprise completers achieved a positive outcome, including 39% into employment or self-employment
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
851 students supported through the In2STEM programme in 2024, from 2,036 applications
Key Metric 2
27,447 hours of in-person STEM placement experience provided to participants
Key Metric 3
94% of participants know what it means to work in STEM after the programme, up from 69% beforehand
97% of alumni who applied to university were successfully offered a place, based on UCAS data from 1,760 alumni